Unfortunately, just as Mark set fire to the thistle, the nurse came in. She let out a war cry before running to call security.
Bubba and Mark started putting their things away. Given Bubba’s height and muscled body, it always amazed Nick how fast he could move. Mark, on the other hand, was ripped, but lean and wiry. You expected speed out of him.
“We got you covered, brother,” Bubba said. “That should keep out almost anything. Now, we’re gonna haul before we get hauled out by security. My mama is just ornery enough to make me spend the night in lockup if I get caught again.”
Nick laughed at the idea of a man the size of Bubba being so scared of someone as tiny as Dr. Burdette.
Until he remembered the fact that he was taller and thicker than his mother, too. And she scared the crap out of him. Yeah, okay, so he couldn’t legitimately harass Bubba for Mamaphobia. Whoever had said that the hand that rocked the cradle ruled the world must have had a Southern, born and bred, mother.
Sobering, he inclined his head to them. “Thanks, guys. I’ll see you later.”
They ducked out the door like two spies avoiding camera relays.
Nick was still smiling when the nurse came back.
“Where’d they go?”
When unsure of how to respond, the best tactic?
Stupid. “Who are we talking about?”
She huffed at him. “You know? The men who were burning things in here. Where are they?”
“I didn’t see anyone burn anything.”
She glared and he could swear he saw the promise of a painful shot in his future. “We’ll find them. With or without you.”
He wished her luck. One thing about those two, they were slipperier than a greased gator on the hunt in the bayou.
Although, the worst thing she could do was catch them.
It’d be like trying to keep a cobra in a shoebox. Not a good idea.
Grinning, Nick leaned back and closed his eyes. He turned his thoughts to something even better than two lunatics outrunning the authorities.
Nekoda.
Instead of sending her off with Caleb to get some eats, he should have kept her here. He didn’t know why, but just the sight of her soothed him. No matter his beaux-beaux, she always made it better.
At times, he thought he was in love with her. At others …
How did anyone know for sure? Were there bells or whistles, or …
What?
Life really needed to come with cartoon bubbles over everyone to explain what was really going on inside their head.
The saddest part, he didn’t know anyone to ask about it. His mother had never been in love. Aside from him and his father, she refused to have any man near her. I ain’t bringing no man around while I got a baby at home. Anyone hits my Boo and I’ll gut him. For the longest time, he’d felt guilty about that.
But after what Kody told him, he knew the real reason why she didn’t date or see men. And that broke his heart.
Menyara would only give the standard, There are some things in the universe that defy explanation. But trust me, when it strikes, you will know.
Kyrian didn’t want to talk about his wife. Ever. Acheron scoffed at the idea of love as the ultimate stupidity. You know what love is, Nick? It’s a woman’s way of controlling the relationship and controlling you. In the wrong hands, it’s the worst, most painful weapon imaginable. So when you give your heart away, make sure it’s a mutual exchange. ’Cause once you let them in, cutting them out again is like being gutted with a dull spoon.
He didn’t want to know what had happened to Acheron to make him so jaded, especially given the fact that Ash had died at age twenty-one. To have that kind of hatred eleven thousand years later.…
Yeah, someone had hurt Ash badly.
The Were-Hunter shapeshifters had their mates chosen for them by the Fates, so they didn’t really date like humans, and they definitely didn’t have a choice or say in who their spouses were.
The only people he knew who were married, he didn’t feel comfortable enough to ask. Or they were divorced, which didn’t bode well since they’d obviously made a mistake when they picked someone.
But Kody … she made him feel things no one else did. He could be having the absolute worst day and with one smile, she could make him forget all about it.
“Did you enjoy your time in Azmodea?”
Nick curled his lip at the familiar voice. Why would Ambrose bug him now? Couldn’t he have five seconds to decompress before his insane older self came in to rough him up?
Yawning, Nick answered without looking. “It certainly wasn’t Disney World—unless Mickey sold his soul to Satan. Not that I’ve ever been to Disney World. Heck, I haven’t even been to Six Flags and it’s just over the bridge.”
The power from Ambrose made the hair on his arms stand on end.
Ambrose’s aura practically sizzled with its lethal capabilities. “I can’t believe you got out of there in one piece. I had to betray the closest thing I’ve ever had to a friend to escape it.”
A bad feeling went through Nick. While the voice was definitely Ambrose’s, the story wasn’t.
No …
It couldn’t be.
Opening his eyes, he saw a man who bore a frightening resemblance to Ambrose. Except this one had short, military-cut jet-black hair, and he stood about two inches taller. Even more telling, he was covered with prison tattoos.
Definitely not Ambrose.
This was his father.
Soc au lait!
CHAPTER 11
Nick tried to call for help, but he was completely paralyzed. He couldn’t even blink. If he so much as thought about Kody or Caleb, a sharp pain pierced his brain.
Was he being stabbed with an ice pick?
His father gave him a crooked smile. “Oh the powers that awaited you … the things you were born to do … Too bad you won’t live long enough to experience any of them.”
Fighting with everything he had, Nick did his best to break free.
He couldn’t. Never had he experienced anything like this. It was terrifying. Forget being Force-choked by Vader, this was even more terrifying and debilitating.
If I get free, old man, you’re going to bleed.
Yeah, okay, so it most likely wouldn’t be much of a fight, but he was going to put up as much of one as he could. There literally was nothing he could do.
Adarian’s gaze was frigid as he moved to stand over Nick. He pressed his thumb against the inside corner of Nick’s left eye. In his head, Nick screamed from the raw agony of it. But the sound wouldn’t leave his throat.
He was the only one who heard it.
His father had him completely paralyzed.
“That’s it,” Adarian whispered before he sucked his breath in with pleasure. “Feed me with your pain. Let me bathe in it.”
“What are you doing, tchu!”
Nick’s eyes widened at a Cajun insult he’d never heard his mother use before. In fact, she went into a full babiller on his hide, using words that shocked him and some he didn’t even know she knew the meaning of.
Her shrill voice ringing off the walls, she ran toward them. She actually slammed all of her body weight against Adarian to shove him away from the bed. Given the fact that she was about a foot and a half shorter and probably weighed less than one of Adarian’s muscled thighs, her ability to move him was impressive. “You get away from him! You hear me?” she snarled through gritted teeth.
“I just wanted to see him. He is my son, after all.”